1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle light control system for controlling lighting devices mounted on a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known to provide a vehicle with a vehicle light control system for controlling lighting devices such as headlights to improve safety during night driving. Some of such vehicle light control systems are so configured as to automatically control a light emission angle of headlights of a vehicle provided with the vehicle light control system (referred to as “object vehicle” hereinafter) in the vehicle height direction (low-beam, or high-beam) while keeping a light emission direction of the headlights towards a driving direction of the object vehicle, when there exists a vehicle running ahead of the object vehicle or an oncoming vehicle (maybe referred to as another vehicle hereinafter) in order to avoid a driver and passengers of another vehicle from dazzling. For example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-131837. And some of such vehicle light control systems are so configured as to control a luminous intensity of headlights of an object vehicle in accordance with a speed of the object vehicle and an ambient brightness, while keeping a light emission direction of the headlights towards a driving direction of the object vehicle. For example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 03-14739.
Other than the above, there are some that control, when an object vehicle drives on a curved road, light axes of headlights of the object vehicle in a vehicle width direction (in the lateral direction) in accordance with a curvature of the curved road ahead of the object vehicle and a steering angle of the object vehicle such that the headlights of the object vehicle emit light along the driving direction of the object vehicle. For example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-104065.
However, the above described conventional vehicle light control systems have a problem in that since they are configured to control the light emission from the headlights optimally at a certain condition, they cannot always properly control the light emission from the headlights at other conditions.
For example, in the vehicle light control system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-104065, since it is configured to perform a control of the light emission direction only when the object vehicle is driving on a curved road, and accordingly the light emission direction is not controlled when the object vehicle is driving on a straight road, it is likely that the headlights of the object vehicle do not emit light in a direction to which the driver of the object vehicle should pay attention, for example, a direction from which another vehicle may come out, or a direction at which pedestrians may be standing.
Accordingly, it is strongly desired to provide a vehicle light control system that can properly control the light emission direction under wide-ranging conditions.